Just a short one today: I keep thinking about the questions I posed earlier - about how to discipline your children if the law is not any good at being able to change or perfect anything. (See entry July 8) And as I continue to read through Hebrews, it’s still a huge mystery, but ... still maybe a little bit clearer, when I read this passage:
Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? If you are not disciplined—and everyone undergoes discipline—then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live! They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. (Hebrews 12:7-11)
It doesn’t exactly say this, but what I get from this is... that discipline is not the same as law, but the relationship and interaction that surrounds the law.
The law is a guideline - “here is what it looks like to be good.” Otherwise, how would we know? And every day, we work it out between ourselves and our Father, with a cloak of love and grace covering all. And, I guess, this is what the relationship with our kids should look like.
That is all.
No comments:
Post a Comment